Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

33 reviews

sea_sea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

OH MY GOODNESS!!! The story continues!!! This book is a little hard to get into in the beginning, but it is amazing to finally see Zoya and Nikolais perspectives! Also how Nina’s life continues after Matthias ;-; It definitely picks up towards the end! It was a little confusing that Ninas and Nikolai+ Zoyas Plots were handled simultaneously in the book, because they had almost nothing to do with each other. Overall a good book! :> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, and War

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Really torn between a 3.5 and 3.75 on this one. A good addition to the Grishaverse. Solid themes and a compelling story overall. The world remains expansive and sucks you in as we’ve come to expect from the Grishaverse, with interesting domestic and foreign politics. While they have similar themes and are obviously working towards the same big thing in the next book, I’m just not sure Nina’s story belonged with what was billed as Nikolai’s story. In this book the two were nearly completely separate and it was a bit jarring switching back and forth. The ending is obviously full of cliffhangers for the second book and some of this throughout felt so obviously like set up for the next book or future entries in the Grishaverse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

lis4so's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and War

chloenrogers's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first book in the Grishaverse that I haven’t been totally in love with. The plot felt somehow crowded and slow and the same time and could have benefitted from having Nina’s story in a separate novel. I’m not totally sure what it is about this instalment but it just never clicked with me, even though it features some of my favourite characters. I’m so used to feeling high stakes from the Grishaverse but this, unfortunately, fell flat. I feel like so much happened, yet the characters remained essentially the same as at the start as we got very little time with any of them beyond surface level observations. There was also next to no romance (or there is but there’s little chemistry compared to the other books)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

micarus's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault

jelliestars's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Slavery, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Gun violence, Infertility, Pedophilia, Vomit, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

siennakt30's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kredeprnz's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Slavery, Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

nenya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I read this book after having read the Six of Crows duology, being excited to continue the Grishaverse. I would not say that I was disappointed but it wasn't entirely what I had expected. The only crow it focusses on is Nina Zenik (who is an icon, I love her with all my heart, don't get me wrong) which is amazing, because she is so developed, driven by her grief and ready to seek revenge -

it is beyond fulfilling to see her get it not only for her but also for the dead women and children by having them speak their truth and avenge themselves through her power

, but I did wish for some insight of how the other crows have been going on. Apart from that, the plot was great and the writing very true to Bardugo but I do feel like it can not entirely match the atmosphere and brilliance of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. Nevertheless, the ending took some turns I did not expect and left me pretty shocked. I'm most definitely excited to read the sequel!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, and Miscarriage

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Abandonment, and Alcohol